Show Some Restraint

Show Some Restraint

Cottage gardens are casual but deliberate. They celebrate both beauty and utility through thoughtful plant choices, arrangement, spacing, and companion planting. A mindful design will result in a healthy and interesting outdoor space.

Here, a lichen-encrusted fence furnishes an effervescent front yard with a measure of rusticity and self-restraint.

2×

Piercing Color

Piercing Color

Perfect Pairings

Perfect Pairings

In an ingenious bit of companion planting, insect-repelling marigolds sown in a simple terra-cotta pot cozy up to a thriving cherry tomato vine. Across the narrow brick walk, bright pink impatiens carry the energetic spirit captured by the window boxes' bright petunias to a container marking the main entry, creating a dramatic sense of arrival in an unassuming setting.

Height Order

Height Order

Order in the border: For a well-balanced mix, place tallest in the back, shorter companions in the front, a la your Senior Class photo. Nursery tags tell the story of what a plant will look like when full grown.

Down by the Bay

Down by the Bay

In a cottage garden near the sea, the fat, juicy hips of drought- and disease-resistant rugosa roses brighten borders at summer's end, when flowers give way to fruit, attracting migrating birds to backyard sanctuaries.

Show Some Restraint

Cottage gardens are casual but deliberate. They celebrate both beauty and utility through thoughtful plant choices, arrangement, spacing, and companion planting. A mindful design will result in a healthy and interesting outdoor space.

Here, a lichen-encrusted fence furnishes an effervescent front yard with a measure of rusticity and self-restraint.

Piercing Color

Perfect Pairings

In an ingenious bit of companion planting, insect-repelling marigolds sown in a simple terra-cotta pot cozy up to a thriving cherry tomato vine. Across the narrow brick walk, bright pink impatiens carry the energetic spirit captured by the window boxes' bright petunias to a container marking the main entry, creating a dramatic sense of arrival in an unassuming setting.

Height Order

Order in the border: For a well-balanced mix, place tallest in the back, shorter companions in the front, a la your Senior Class photo. Nursery tags tell the story of what a plant will look like when full grown.

Spice It Up

Down by the Bay

In a cottage garden near the sea, the fat, juicy hips of drought- and disease-resistant rugosa roses brighten borders at summer's end, when flowers give way to fruit, attracting migrating birds to backyard sanctuaries.